Scabber is NOT a rat (was Hyperbolic Chapter Titles )

[meltowne]

No: HPFGUIDX 81320

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "feetmadeofclay" 
<feetmadeofclay at y...> wrote:

Golly: 

The Authorial voice is always right - even when it doesn't give you 
the whole picture. The facts it gives you are true. Scabbers was a 
rat - undistinguished and long lived. Spells wouldn't work on it 
apparently. 

Me:

Actually, no scabbers was NOT a rat, and that's the point.  When Ron 
tried to cast spells on scabbers, he was trying to turn a RAT into 
something yellow:

          "Sunshine, daisies, butter mellow,
          Turn this stupid fat rat yellow."

The spell failed, not because Ron was a lousy spellcaster, but 
because Scabbers wasn't really a rat!  He was a human in disguise.

We can't always take everything at face value.  The memory from the 
pensieve may be Snapes worst memory, it might not.  Harry clearly 
thinks it is, or why would it be there?  Perhaps we need to figure 
out why it was there - and there are plenty of possibilities.

Maybe Snape didn't want Harry to access it - because it was his worst 
fear, or for some other reason.

Maybe Snape didn't want it clouding his own perception when dealing 
with Harry during the lessons.  He only got truly nasty with Harry 
AFTER he dove in to get him.  At that point he saw what memory Harry 
was seeing, and it did cloud his perception.

Melinda